


Gotham City Garage (Part 2)

by SteveM



Series: Multiverse Madness [5]
Category: Batwoman (TV 2019), Gotham City Garage (Comics), Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-18
Updated: 2020-10-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:47:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,598
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27079060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SteveM/pseuds/SteveM
Summary: With her first mission a success Kara learns more about her newly-found sisters in the Gotham City Garage. Back in the Garden her sister Kate moves into the field for the first time and faces both Lena and the truth of awe world while Earth-Prime's Kate and Kara watch with the Spectre to aid in his judgement...
Relationships: Kara Danvers & Kate Kane, Kara Danvers/Kate Kane, Kara Danvers/Sara Lance, Kara Danvers/Sara Lance/Felicity Smoak
Series: Multiverse Madness [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1931842
Comments: 7
Kudos: 17





	1. Chapter 1

As the desert rushed passed and the sun raced to the horizon Kate looked at Kara with a crooked grin.

“What? What is it?” Kara asked a little defensively.

“So… even in a world where you’ve been brainwashed, kept under a red sun and have no idea what you can do you’re still going to be awesome huh?”

Kara couldn’t help blushing at the compliment but tried her best to play it cool. “Guess not.”

“Really? That’s the best you’ve got?” Kate teased, her grin growing wider. “And I thought you were coming along so well…”

“In fairness we are meant to be here to judge a great injustice. Or stop a great injustice. Or… or something that’ll make sense when we see it. Bit busy to be coming up with snappy one liners.”

“Smooth Danvers, real smooth.” Kate said and ran a hand across Kara’s cheek. “You’re lucky I’m a sucker for beautiful dorks.”

“Well you’ve got taste at least.”

“See? That’s better. I mean, not *much* better but a definite improvement.” Kate said before giving her wife a quick kiss. The whole being incorporeal watchers of great tragedy thing was starting to get to her and finding moments to recenter on her normal life was increasingly seeming like an important move. Apparently it was one that Oliver agreed with as it wasn’t until Kate moved away from Kara that the world came to a halt again, the sun starting to hang low in the sky above a huge metal hanger as they passed effortlessly through the wall to stand in the huge workshop space just behind the assembled crew waiting for their sisters to return with the prize.

The ruined truck pulled into the yawning chasm of the Gotham City Garage, dust falling from its wheels and chassis like rain as Felicity triggered the large roller door to sell the space from the elements. The engine gave one last groan then died as Kara thumbed it off though, if the rattle from somewhere deep beneath the twisted metal was any indication, it was unlikely to ever run again. 

“What the hell happened?” Frost asked, looking at what appeared to be a rolling car crash in wonder. “And how are you all still in one piece?”

“The Red Hood M.C. happened.” Sara growled as she pulled her chromed bike to a halt and helped Alex step off rather gingerly. “They caught up in the dead zone and there was a… disagreement.”

“And we’re not in one piece.” Alex said through gritted teeth, one hand on her right thigh. “Canyons of Clay did a hell of a job on my wiring.”

Unseen from her vantage point between realities Kara looked in shock at this version of her sister, wishing her x-ray vision would still work when they were in this state. She liked to think she knew Alex pretty well and was almost certain that wasn’t just a figure of speech…

“The canyons of… Sara!” Felicity looked at the assassin in shock. “You didn’t go in there?”

“Seemed like the thing to do at the time.”

“And with a new blood?!” 

“If it hadn’t been for Kara we’d never have made it out of there.” Sara said quietly as the young blonde swung down from the cab and walked happily over to the group.

“One shipment as ordered! I… hey, are you okay?” Her mood changed on a dime as she saw the hobbling Alex grimace. “Here, let me help…” 

Alex growled as Kara moved to pick her up and to her surprise the newcomer to their little group took the hint. She switched instead to offering a shoulder and Alex gratefully draped an arm across the slim woman noticing there wasn’t so much as a tremble of effort.

“Lena around?” Alex asked Felicity but got a shake of the head in return.

“Not today.”

“Huh? Where…Oh… sorry, lost track.”

“It’s okay. Feeling brave enough to let me look?”

“Only if you kiss it better afterwards.” Alex threw a surprisingly effective seductive tone into her voice, impressing Kara considering how much pain the red head was clearly in. 

“Deal. Come on then, medical is empty at the moment anyway.”

Kara helped Alex move after the wheelchair-bound mechanical genius and Alex had to admit, even if only in the privacy of her own head, the help was welcome. 

“So about Kara getting you out of there…” Frost said casually from just behind Sara’s left shoulder. Sara just sighed and shook her head.

“You’re never going to believe me.”

“Try me.”

“She tanked a solar bomb Frost. Literally hugged the damn thing and just… sucked it up.”

Frost stared as if Sara had been speaking gibberish. “Wait… a solar bomb? As in one of those Lex-damned things that levelled Metropolis?”

“Yeah, that’d be the one.” Sara said and for the first time Frost noticed the slight tremor in her voice. Sara Lance was rattled and that was practically a unique experience in Frost’s experience. “Also she fired a giant laser from her eyes. Oh and lifted the truck up with one hand.”

“What is she Sara?” Frost asked, never even thinking to ask if Sara was sure.

Sara sighed again and leant back against Frost, enjoying the feel of another human pressed against her. “No idea but I’m glad she’s on our side.”

“Is she? We don’t exactly know her!” Frost pointed out as she let her arms slide around Sara’s hips.

“If she’d wanted us dead we’d be dead. She could have killed us out there and come back with the goods and a totally believable story. For that matter she could probably kill everyone here in a heartbeat if she wanted to.” Sara shuddered as she pictured the scene and squirmed around in Frost’s grip, looking up at her with sparkling blue eyes. “It’s something I’d rather not think about to be honest.”

“Want some help changing the subject?” Frost grinned as Sara closed the gap so that her next words tickled Frost’s lips.

“Oh you’d better believe it.”

“My place or yours?”

“Did you fix the handcuffs yet?”

“Sort of…”

“Mine then. I really don’t want you explaining to Felicity why she needs to come help you pop a lock…” Sara moved forward and kissed Frost hard, surprising her prospective lover with the force of the kiss. She knew Sara always tended to find solace in sex when she was rattled about something and if that kiss was anything to go by the woman was verging on terrified. Still, Frost was hardly going to object considering what that kiss promised…


	2. Chapter 2

Kara watched fascinated through the transparent side of the medical cylinder as Felicity worked the remote arms with a delicacy Kara would have thought impossible. Inside the sterile environment Alex’s leg was surrounded by an isolation field which prevented any pain from the operation while also ensuring that the limb remained still and kept anything but the medical equipment out of the opened body. The equipment itself was common enough, even if Kara had never expected to see it so far from the Garden. What was unique, at least in her experience, was the mass of cybernetics revealed beneath the skin as Felicity worked.

“Uh, just to check, Alex doesn’t have that in our reality, right?” Kate asked quietly from her position just to her Kara’s right, an arm around her shoulders to give some moral support as the blonde watched this alternate universe version of her sister undergoing surgery.

“Not as far as I know.”

“Damn. So she’s that awesome on her own?”

“Pretty much.” Kara said with a smile, reaching up to squeeze Kate’s hand in silent thanks as they returned their attention to the unfolding conversation.

“You doing okay?” Felicity asked and Alex nodded.

“Yeah, fine. How long?”

“Another twenty minutes. Complicated stuff is done, just need to let the pod stitch you back together.” Felicity replied wheeling back from the controls. “Should be as good as new once you’re rebooted.”

“Thanks Doc.” Alex said with a small smile. “Now you might as well tell the rookie the story while you wait.”

Kara looked up guiltily and Alex actually chuckled from inside the tube. “It’s okay Kara. You aren’t the first to wonder and after today the very least I owe you is an explanation. It’s just that Felicity tells the story better than I do.”

Felicity shook her head but couldn’t quite hide the twitch of her lips as she fought off a rueful smile. “I don’t know about that but I guess I was in a better position to remember it all than you were. Alright, take a seat.” She pointed at a small desk and two chairs just to the side of the medical cylinder. Kara pulled one out and sat down as Felicity rolled up to one of the free sides of the desk. 

“Few years back we were riding in a merc crew. The Winged Hussars, baddest bunch in the Freescape. Punks like the Red Hood M.C. would turn and run if we so much as came over the horizon. Anyway one day we were looking to raid what we thought was a Garden warehouse. Dozen of us and a couple of transport trucks, figured we could get in and out quick with enough supplies to last six months easy.”

“Not the way you get through cookies.” Alex teased from the tube as the robot arms started to close the wound.

“Ignore her, she always gets a little goofy when we open her up.” Felicity advised but Kara noticed the small affectionate grin that played on Felicity’s lips. It was a good look on her… “So we get there, blast the main door and it’s only once we’re inside we realised it wasn’t a warehouse at all.”

“What was it?” Kara asked wide-eyed, totally caught up in the story.

“Turns out it was the regional manufacturing plant for Gardners.” Felicity said with a shudder. “Had to be a few dozen in there easy, maybe more. Half of us got killed in the first volley, nothing to duck behind by the door and we weren’t ready for that sort of firepower. We didn’t even stop, just sent the bikes headlong into the first cover that looked like it might have enough give in it not to kill us. Next five minutes were the most vicious firefight you can imagine. Those of us that were left knew it was fight or die so we gave them everything until it was just the two of us.”

She rolled her eyes as she looked over at Alex. “Of course this one just had to be a hero. I took a shot to the spine, put me down but I could still shoot. She spotted a power conduit that had been damaged by an exploding Gardner. Grabbed some tape from a workbench, stuck all our grenades together and lobbed the whole lot at the damn thing. Explosion wrecked the Gardners and most of the room but she had just enough time to shield me from the blast. Pity she used her own damn body to do it though!”

“Holy shit.” Kara whispered, picturing the scene in her minds’ eye.

“Pretty good summary, yeah.” Felicity agreed. “Concussion wave knocked me out and when I came to I was still paralysed but Alex was shredded. Still alive somehow, though I’ve no idea how. Too stubborn to die or maybe Death’s just afraid to take her, who knows? Then the entire fucking building starts putting itself back together around us! Completely self-repairing so I crawled over and shut it down before it could start doing the same to the Gardners!”

“By the time I got I managed to stop it everything was basically fixed and… well… and I looked at Alex lying face down, struggling to breath and ripped apart and I figured if she wasn’t ready to leave this world the least I could do was try to help her stay.”

“You used the factory…” Kara breathed, understanding sparkling in her eyes. “Didn’t you? Reprogrammed it to see her as a Gardner, had it rebuild her with their tech?”

“Smart girl!” Felicity said with a smile. “Yep, more or less. Bit harder than it sounds of course but worth it.”

“Yeah, now I’m stronger, faster and better than I was before the blast!” Alex called as the robot arms retracted and she stretched carefully in the tube. “Just need the occasional repair job. Fair trade really.”

“Do you have any idea how hard that was? I mean, it shouldn’t have been possible… “ Kara said seemingly awe-struck. “You’re a genius Felicity!”

“Well I don’t like to brag.” Felicity said. “But yes, I am and don’t forget it. Problem is some of the tech is so far beyond what I’ve worked on before I still don’t understand it.”

“Ah, but Lena does?” Kara asked and got a confirming nod in return. “That’s why you were asking if she was here?” She directed the question at Alex who just shrugged.

“Always seem to get an upgrade with her so if I’m being opened up anyway…”

“Which reminds me, where is she?” Kara asked and the look that passed between the other two women worried the hell out of her. “I mean, you didn’t seem to know she wouldn’t be around so…”

“We knew.” Felicity said flatly and for a moment that seemed to Kara to be the end of the conversation.

“Tell her.” Alex said quietly.

“What? She’s only just got here!”

“And she’s already saved my life. She saved Sara’s life. And did things no-one should be able to do.” Alex said patiently. “If we’re going to trust her, trust her.”

Felicity glared but Alex didn’t back down and after a thoroughly uncomfortable thirty seconds the blonde in the wheelchair growled in annoyance but nodded her agreement.

“On one condition. This doesn’t leave this room, understand?”

“Absolutely.” Kara said and it was her sincerity that finally convinced Felicity to start talking.

“Do you remember what Sara told you about Lena when you first got here?”

“Uh… that we both came from the Garden but where I flew she… crawled wasn’t it?”

“Very good, you’ve clearly been paying attention.” Felicity said with a surprised look on her face. “Well that was absolutely true… but it doesn’t cover half of it. Lena’s obviously quite a bit younger than Lex. Apparently her father enjoyed a rather loose approach to his marriage vows back before the world burnt and, well, she was the result.”

“When Lex put the dome over Gotham he brought Lena with him. The only family he had left, as far as we know. She was… maybe ten years old, we’re not really sure and she either doesn’t know or isn’t telling. Ten years old and she’d just watched the end of the world, fair to say she was a little traumatised by it all. Lex, well, he took care of her.”

“Lex? Lex took care of her? The guy who put ridealongs in everyone’s heads to turn them into good little puppets took care of a ten year old traumatised girl?” Kara looked incredulous at the revelation.

“After a fashion, yes. He made sure she was safe and found a way to coax her back to the world.”

“That doesn’t sound… good.” 

Felicity sighed and Kara saw the pain in her eyes. “It wasn’t. He convinced her that they were the only chance that the human race had. That they needed to be better and smarter than everyone else, come up with ways to help everyone move forward at a pace unrivalled in human history. That they were the chosen two and the Garden would love them for it.”

“Oh no…”

“That about sums it up, yes.” Alex put in as a fresh dressing was wrapped around her repaired limb by the robot arms. “Lena was, and is, a genius. A real child prodigy. Maybe the smartest person in the world next to Lex and even that’s up for debate. And Lex took full advantage.”

Felicity looked grim as she reached out, seemingly without realising it, and placed her hand on top of Kara’s. “She designed the first Gardner robot when she was twelve. By the time she was fifteen she’d figured out how to let them transmute their weaponry. And when she turned eighteen… Lex came to her with a brand new idea. Something that only she could make work. And the fucking infuriating thing is he was probably telling the truth about that…”

Kara looked at the pain on Felicity’s face and thought very, very quickly. “No…”

“It started out as a birth control tool, if you can believe it.” Felicity said with a mirthless laugh. “Lex needed a way to keep the people from screwing the night away if they were ever going to be able to accommodate everyone under the dome. He tried pretty much everything short of permanent surgery but couldn’t crack it. So he put Lena to work on it. Despite everything she’s got an astonishing insight into the human mind, how we think and react, how to influence people subtly enough they don’t realise it’s not their idea.”

“The first version was a simple question and answer session designed to make someone think that the best thing they could possibly do was not fuck their partner. There was limited success but there’s only so far you can go with words. They tried adverts, both normal and subliminal, but even then you’re fighting against the natural drive of the human body to reproduce. So Lena started looking to machines.”

“It took five years but she developed the first version of the ridealongs. And they worked, oh how well they worked. It was the perfect solution. Safe, well, mostly safe anyway and not only were there no direct affects on the reproductive system the desire to have kids could be switched on and off at will. Better yet they could even force someone to think of anyone as the most beautiful person in the world. It would literally let the house of Luthor shape their genetic world at the flick of a switch.”

“So what went… wrong?” Kara asked, reluctant to use the word as even that version sounded monstrous but she could almost, sort of see why such a think would be desirable if you had no morals whatsoever.

“Lex. He was always watching, always reviewing her progress. Without her realising it he slipped a lot of code into the system, expanded the hardware to control the entire mind not just someone’s sex drive. Of course he didn’t tell Lena and it took her another four years of refinement to figure out the problems it caused. The unexplained seizures, the occasional bout of psychosis, nightmares so bad the victim’s chewed their own limbs off to escape whatever they were seeing… all charming stuff.”

“She did it of course. I’m not sure there was ever a doubt. And on the day she went to Lex to tell him they’d finally succeeded, that a decade of her life had given humanity what she thought it so desperately needed to survive… he showed her what he’d done.” Felicity’s eyes went hard and her hand clenched on top of Kara’s. “There was a patient, a volunteer really, that she’d grown close to. Lex had her brought in and showed Lena how he could instantly make Andrea forget every single moment they’d ever shared together. Could make her go from cold and distant to uncontrollably turned on just by seeing Lena. How he could make her dance like a puppet on a string.”

“God…”

“He certainly seemed to think he was, yes.” Felicity agreed. “After that Lena turned against him, looked for a way to undo what she’d done. But it was far, far too late. Everyone in the Garden got fitted with ridealongs whether they wanted to or not. Suddenly wherever she tuned she found the people she wanted to help working against her. They were happy of course or, at least, that’s what they were forced to think. Lex knew, of course, but he didn’t seem bothered by it. He knew there wasn’t anything she could really do to hurt him and he made sure the Bat was watching her closely.”

“So how’d she get out? I mean, I had to blast open the dome and fly…” Kara asked, completely caught up in the tale.

“She picked her moment carefully.” Felicity said with some satisfaction. “Arranged for a major incident in one of the water reclamation plants. Made it look like a whole terrorist cell had gone after it. Once the Bat was out of the way she got the hell out of there. Took the elevator down to the basement, overrode the security and dropped into the sewers. Literally crawled her way out of the city with all the data and tech she could carry on her back. Made it to the Freescape and somehow contacted one of the local gangs. Managed to hide her identity and helped them improve their bikes and weapons to pay her way. And ever since she’s been looking for a way to get back at Lex.”

“Wait… wait, you said it was a water reclamation plant and a terrorist attack?” Kara asked, her eyes wide. “I remember that! It was about four weeks after I started as a ridealong tech! No-one could figure out what was going on as the ridealongs were all suddenly giving us weird readings, double vision, sensor echoes… all sorts of strange things.”

“Yeah, that was Lena.” Alex said as the tube cracked open and she gingerly got out of the tube, slowly trusting her weight to the newly-repaired leg.

“But that was five years ago…. Hang on, that was five years ago today!” Kara said with a start, looking from one to the other in surprise.

“And that’s why we know where she’s gone. It’s a tradition at this point…” Felicity told Kara, squeezing her hand one last time and letting go leaving the younger blonde staring at the two of them slack jawed as she realised exactly where Lena Luthor was likely to be…

The garage faded away and Kate hugged Kara close. “You okay?”

“Yeah. But Lena…”

“I know.” Kate said grimly. “I can’t imagine how she feels about that.”

“I can.” Kara said with a growl. “I’ve seen her go through it more than once. But I know this much… she’s not going to rest until she’s put it right!”


	3. Chapter 3

The explosion raced joyfully into the night and scorched the underside of the dome surrounding Gotham. Fed by a reserve of natural gas normally routed to one of the Gardner repair facilities it looked like a giant firework and could be seen from one side of the city to the other. As was usual for anything critical in Gotham under Lex Luthor’s rule it was surrounded by a mix of commercial, business and residential property to discourage anyone with a conscience from attacking indiscriminately. This though had clearly been a very careful planned move with only the building itself damaged so there was a sizeable crowd gathered around watching the show . Of course thanks to the ridealongs embedded in their skulls it was more out of curiosity than fear. Almost before the initial rain of debris had finished falling there was the familiar clank of metal feet as the zone was cordoned off by every Gardner in the sector. 

“Bruce, what are you doing?” Kate asked, noticing the dot on her tracker screen accelerating up the main expressway seemingly in the wrong direction. She wasn’t sure she’d get an answer - it wasn’t as if the Batman reported to her after all - but to her surprise the comm crackled back.

“You know what day it is. She’ll be targeting the ridealong network. The attack is just a distraction.”

“I can send reinforcements to…”

“No. If she knows we’re ready she’ll pull back and she’s too dangerous to let slip away again. This ends tonight.”  
There was a final click as the channel went dead and Kate settled back in her seat with a thoughtful grunt. He was right of course. The Bat always was. It was the right day and the explosion burning on the north west of the city was about as far from the main ridealong control nexus as it was possible to get. More to the point the transport links in that area were poor and the damage to the repair facility would limit the available air vehicles to move forces back into the city.

So why, Kate thought, did something feel off? She scanned through the video feeds again, starting with the area around ridealong control. The streets were packed with people as they always seemed to be these days no matter the time of day. Here and there she could pick out the metallic form of a Gardner watching the citizens but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. If Lena Luthor was skulking around that building she was doing a remarkable job of hiding.

Kate switched her attention to the access logs, looking for some stray data point that might suggest someone sneaking past the security systems. There were a couple of small pings on pressure plates in the sewer lines but they were consistent with the expected rat activity. Not a single door had been opened without a valid pass and the time from swiping the card to the door opening and closing again was within the expected response time of the individual assigned that pass. 

Frowning she widened her net, looking for any suspicious activity in the downtown area of Gotham. It didn’t seem to make a difference though. No matter how hard she searched it appeared to be like any normal night in the city with the obvious exception of the pillar of fire burning merrily in the north west. Even though it could be seen from the downtown core none of the citizens seemed particularly interested in it. After all they were protected by Lex, what was there to worry about?

For Kate though the very normal results was giving her plenty to worry about and she racked her brain trying to think of something else. She left a search program running to detect any unusual patterns and checked the tracking screen. Bruce had reached ridealong control and his suit marker pinged from somewhere within the building. His personal force of Gardners - advanced models built for stealth and assault - were lurking on the rooftops a few blocks away, safely tucked in to just a few of the countless secret spaces that the shadows and ramshackle architecture offered. 

Kate stood and paced for a minute, her mind racing as she tried to think what she might have missed. She knew what Lena’s mission would be tonight, to try and disrupt or better yet free the citizens from the safety of their ridealongs. To break Lex’s benevolent protection and leave them all fending for themselves in the hope of grabbing power. So how did she…

Kate’s train of thought was interrupted by a ping from the console and she frowned as she read the alert. A citizen in the north west was experiencing a malfunction in their connection to the ridealong network. It was unusual, certainly, but not impossible. The hardware was reliable but nothing was foolproof. She reached for her headset to summon a Gardner to resolve the problem but froze as another two alerts popped up. Ridealong disruption. North West sector. Then reports started coming in faster, one a second then two then four…

She grabbed the headset and slapped for Bruce’s personal comm channel. “Bruce there’s something wrong in the North West! She’s…” Kate stopped as she heard the hiss of static and reflexively glanced at the screen dedicated to the Bat’s telemetry. His biometrics were steady so he was alright… which meant it was their comm network that had failed. She looked back at the bank of screens showing the city and the blazing inferno that had started this mess and cursed.

She sprinted for some of the rarely used equipment at the back of the cave and keyed for a spectrographic scan of the fire. It took a few seconds for the necessary sensor units to focus then she saw a digital representation of the blaze on the screen in front of her. The core was what she’d expect from a natural gas fire but flying out from the edges and rapidly spreading throughout the area was an oddly fine mist that showed up as an emerald green on the scan. She eyed the initial data and her suspicions were confirmed. The computer wasn’t sure what, exactly, the stuff was but the parts it was able to identify could be - and indeed probably had been - designed to specifically attack ridealongs and disrupt their signals.

Kate looked over the screens again and saw a city suddenly in chaos. The dust was spreading slowly and probably wouldn’t make it out of the North West sector but the disruption to comms seemed city-wide and the Gardners were struggling to adapt. Certainly getting any additional forces into the air would take some time. She glanced at the top right screen which showed a view from the building opposite what had been the repair facility, blinked a couple of times then dove for the controls. Freezing and rewinding the footage she quickly confirmed what she’d thought she’d seen. Just for a moment the fire had flickered in the right way as the smoke had shifted to reveal the outline of a woman crouched in the lee of a rooftop access point and an air conditioning unit watching the blaze.

Bruce was out of contact. The Gardners were operating independently. There was no chance of arranging reinforcements quickly enough to make a difference. And their primary target was just watching the chaos and laughing at them. That left Kate just one choice and she made it in a moment. She made a quick note of what she’d spotted and sent it into the growing chaos, hoping it’d find its way through to Bruce. Then she turned and walked to the display cases that adorned one wall and reached with trembling fingers for her cowl…

****

Lena eyed the streets below with curiosity as ridealong after ridealong failed. In each case the reaction was the same. The person would stutter to a halt like a toy with dead batteries. After a few seconds they’d look around as if seeing the world for the first time. Their hands would reach to the backs of their heads, tapping the small metal nubs as if there was a loose wire they could wiggle back into place. Another freeze… and then they went wild.

Her portable scanner was capturing the scene and, more importantly, the data flying through the air around them but for this Lena didn’t need it. After all she knew exactly how the system worked, what it fed into the brain and even if they were still her original designs removing them would require careful management. With Lex using them to effectively brainwash citizens around the clock reality would come as a monumental shock. The lack of comforting chemical balancing, the silence where the little voice used to be… even the smells of the city and the textures of everything from brickwork to the clothes on their bodies would be different. 

No wonder they started running, crying out with a mix of terror and joy as their minds experienced freedom, true freedom, for the first time in years. In some cases she knew even that might be too optimistic, those born after her great invention would be finding themselves free for the first time in their lives. She’d worried that it would be too much, that they would go catatonic or look to harm themselves so in many ways the impromptu riot was a positive sign. A painful one, she knew, but a necessary step if she was ever to undo her mistake.

Her suit detected a change in the air and she looked up, the network of sensors scattered throughout the armour locating the threat she knew was coming. A virtual overlay of the world pinged red, highlighting a spot near the curve of the dome and a shadow moving quickly towards her, virtually invisible against the metal and glass that covered the city. 

Cursing Lena double checked her portable scanner was secure then raced for the edge of the rooftop. How the hell had the Bat made it back here so quickly? There shouldn’t have been any way for him to cross the city in less than thirty minutes! She made it within a dozen steps of the drop when something thudded into her from behind and sent her tumbling across the hard concrete. Lena tucked and let the roll carry her away from her attacker, letting her armour take the brunt of the impact, trying to regain her footing as quickly as she could with solid cover behind her. 

The figure she saw walking steadily towards her was a surprise. Oh the symbol was what she’d expected, though the blood red colour was a striking change. The rest was entirely new though. One thing she was absolutely certain of was this wasn’t Bruce Wayne. Her suit did its best to scan the newcomer but the skintight body armour over the slim frame scattered every sensor she had. At least the surface details seemed to be what she’d expected, not that that was much comfort as that meant it was likely bullet proof, could absorb genetic energy, had more weapons that most armies and that was just the start of Lena’s problems.

“Lena Luthor, you’re under arrest by the authority and grace of Lex.” The voice was harsh and cold but clearly female under the electronic enhancement. Not that Lena was surprised, the suit had kinda given that little surprise away from the start.

Lena laughed and shifted her feet, eying the newcomer carefully. “That’s sweet but I don’t think so.” Before she’d finished the last word Lena’s arm came up, the dark red armour shifting just like the skin of a Gardner to form an energy weapon. She fired a stream of energy bolts but the new Bat was already moving, diving forwards and under the attack to close the distance, make it more difficult for Lena to track her. She brought her arm down, not aiming at the woman but at the floor in front of her, stitching a pattern of fire to force this unexpected foe to keep her distance.

“That all you got?” The Bat was circling casually, staying ahead of the deadly barrage seemingly without effort and all the time moving closer to her prey. “I’m disappointed.”

“Actually what you are is distracted.” Lena replied and gave a tight smile as they completed a full circle, the blasted section of the roof creaked and collapsed under their feet. Lena had been expecting it, the Bat hadn’t and that showed as they landed on the next floor down in a shower of rubble, Lena on her feet and the Bat on her face.

“Hope Bruce kept the receipt…. Think you’re defective.” Lena growled out as she turned and ran for the main staircase. She jumped down entire flights at a time, bouncing off the right angle corners almost without slowing. In her head she was figuring out her route from the front door, which streets she needed to take, where the nearest exit point would be. Her armoured feet clattered on to the tile floor of the lobby but before she’d made it halfway across there was a crash from behind her and the next moment a thin but seemingly unbreakable line had wrapped around her, lashing her arms to her sides.

“Think again.” The Bat was crouched in the middle of the stairwell having clearly jumped all the way down in one go. Her right hand held a grapple gun and that was what had trapped Lena. Her thumb tapped a control and the line suddenly crackled. Power surged through Lena’s armour, overloading its failsafes and arcing through to the woman beneath. The scream echoed in the empty stairwell as Lena’s hands spasmed trying to slip the agonising line from her body. 

“Now you’re going to tell me exactly where the rest of your terrorist friends are hiding. You’re going to take me there. And you’re going to watch as I kill Kara Kane.” The Bat snapped the current off but kept her thumb hovering just over the control. “Understand?”

“Kara? Why her?” Lena asked as she gasped for breath, the phantom echoes of the pain still chasing through her nerves.

“Do you care?” The thumb caressed the switch and Lena cried out again as she fell to one knee.

“You’re… asking… me to… help kill her… so yes!” Lena bit out between screams and to her surprise the pain stopped. She heard the woman moving closer, felt rather than saw her kneel down to look Lena in the eye. The cowl, now they were up close, had a far more organic look than Lena remembered from Bruce’s. The face plate was carved into smooth, angular features but the surface moved in subtle ways to reflect the wearer beneath. The Bat reached up and tapped two fingers into control points in the neck of her suit. The helmet flowed away to reveal a truly beautiful face that, despite the dire situation, left Lena speechless for a second or two.

“She killed Jacob Kane. My father. Do you really have to ask why I want her dead?”

Lena looked puzzled for a moment. “Killed… Look I know what the Lexes archives say about me sweetie and I’m pretty sure I’m supposed to be the crazy one in this conversation,”

“What?” The Bat’s left hand shot out and caught Lena’s chin, holding her still as she waved the grapple gun slowly in front of her eyes. “Do you really think calling someone who can torture you ‘crazy’ is a good idea?”

“When you’re making less sense than a priest in a brothel, yes.” Lena said casually though her words were slightly muffled by the tight grip around her face. “Kara didn’t kill your father.”

“I’ve seen the footage! She throttled him, blew a hole in the dome and met up with your terrorist cell!”

Lena sighed and shook her head. Or tried to at least, the iron grip of the Bat made it exceptionally difficult. “If Jacob was your father I’m assuming you’re Kate?”

“How do you…”

“Because you’re all Kara talks about when she’s drunk!” Lena said, almost laughing at the absurdity of the situation. “She worries about you constantly, every night, making plans to come and rescue you from this place. Plans that would get her killed so we end up talking her out of them but it’s the thought that counts… even in the Garden.”

“Nice try.” Kate smiled but Lena saw the fragility hidden behind it. “She survived jumping from the top of the dome. She took a rocket hit and still had a head on her shoulders. She had tech. This sort of tech…” She tapped the red armour and laughed as Lena tried to grab her, easily moving out of the way. 

“You’re wrong.” Lena said quietly. “I was there. We don’t know what she is or how she survived but it wasn’t us. And from what I could tell it wasn’t tech. It was…. her. Just her.”

“That’s impossible.” Kate snarled and stabbed her finger down on the button. Lena jerked back as her body tried to escape the wire that bound her, slamming on to her back and writhing until Kate cut the current. “Tell me the truth!”

“I am.” Lena said, suddenly exhausted. “I don’t know how your father died. I didn’t know he was definitely dead until you told me just now. Kara certainly doesn’t know he’s gone but I think she suspects. Probably why she gets drunk. I’m a lot of things Kane but above all I’m a realist. If you’ve earned that symbol on your chest you’ll have done your research, you’ll have read my psych profile… possibly even the real one not the Lex-doctored piece of crap that gets thrown onto your news feeds. On this I’ve got no reason to lie. And you know it.”

Kate instinctively went to hit the button again but something in her stopped her thumb just as it brushed the control. She stilled and Lena saw, to her surprise, the angry young woman visibly collect herself, force her mind to settle and think clearly. 

“Why? Why would she leave? Why would she leave my father, why would she leave me behind if it wasn’t for her own freedom?” Kate asked and her blue eyes were locked on Lena with a worrying intensity. “Why did she run!”

“She doesn’t know or, if she does, she hasn’t told us.” Lena said carefully, suddenly aware that the stakes had somehow been raised. “She just said she came home, Jacob told her to run, that he’d found her and to get to the sun.”

“He *found* her?” Kate said, incredulous. “That’s the best bullshit you can come up with?”

“It’s what she said.”

“We grew up together! I can remember her! Every day for all of my life!”

Lena looked at Kate with unexpected sympathy and shook her head. “How clearly do you remember those days?”

“Like it was yesterday!”

“All of it? Or just moments? Her… her first day in school? Doing something together for the first time?”

Kate gave Lena a sharp look and said nothing but the flicker in her eyes was enough. “They’re fake. Your memories.” Lena said flatly. “The ridealongs can modify the mind in all sorts of ways. Make you feel happy, sad, scared, loyal, horny… it’s trivial to change someone’s memories. But when you do it’s always the same. The new ones are pin-sharp but nothing connects them. It fools us because we want to be fooled, we’re wired that way.”

“You’re lying.”

“No. You can probably look it up, it is - or, was, anyway - in the operations manual. But you don’t need to do that. Just think back to the earliest memory you have of Kara. Remember how detailed it is, how crystal clear. Now think of your last birthday party with her… it’ll be fuzzy, clouded, the usual muddle of memory and wish and forgetfulness that we all have.”

“I…” Kate stared past Lena, looking at something that was for her alone. Her entire life, sleeting past her eyes, wondering how much was real, what she could trust.

“Kara’s the same.” Lena said almost casually now, watching the revelation march over Kate’s face. “She doesn’t know who she is. Or what she is, come to that. She doesn’t know how she did those things either, she just knows she did them. And she’s completely cut off from everything and everyone she knew. So she’s doing the only thing she can…”

“Is this the inspirational part where you tell me she’s changing and convince me to let you go?” Kate asked but it was clearly a question born of reflex with no venom behind it.

“Actually I was going to say she’s getting wasted and passing out trying to dull the pain of losing her family but I’ve no idea if that’s inspiring for you or not.” Lena said with a shrug. “But she’s also trying to figure out what’s next, what being free really means.”

“I know what it means!”

“Do you?” Lena raised an eyebrow and nodded over her shoulder to the sounds of the riot still going on outside. “No-one in this city is free. No-one. What you’re hearing out there is the sound of people realising they’ve been lied to so completely they never thought they needed to question that lie. They got it all at once. You… you’re getting that revelation a little slower. Make the most of that opportunity, it’s a rare thing.”

Kate froze and in her mind’s eye she saw the pieces slam into place. Saw the brutal suppression of any that asked questions, saw Bruce’s cold, calculating approach, saw the systems and structures build up and up to keep everyone in their place… and she saw the lie. 

“It’s not for them, it’s for him…” She whispered then went wide-eyed as she looked at Lena. “Lex. It’s all for Lex.”

“Yes.” That single word carried a lifetime of bitterness and Lena felt her pulse race. “Yes it is. And I helped him do it. No-one’s blameless in this Kane, none of us.”

“Kate.”

There was a moment of shocked silence as both women looked at each other in surprise before Kate carried on. “It’s Kate. Kate Kane.” She hesitated then released the grapple, the wire dropping away from Lena’s arms and gently clattering to the floor. “Go.”

“They’ll kill you if you stay.” Lena pointed out. “They’ll know you let me go, the ridealongs will tell them.”

“I know. But I can’t leave. Not yet. There’s something I need to do first.”

“What’s possibly more important than your life?”

“The truth.” Kate straightened up and offered Lena her hand, helping her back to her feet. “And maybe a way to start setting this right, at least in some small way.”

“You’ll still be dead.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. But at least I’ll have tried.” Kate took a step towards the door and hesitated. “Would you take a message to Kara for me?”

“Depends what it is.”

“Just… that I’m sorry. And that I’ll try to leave in two days, at sunset. As bikes aren’t exactly freely available here I’d appreciate a ride.”

“You won’t make it.”

“Probably not.” Kate agreed, turning to walk back past Lena and stand in the stairwell, grapple gun in hand. She put her fingers to the contact points on her collar and the helmet snapped back into place. “But I’m going to try anyway.”

The gun sparked, the hook shot upwards and a second later Batwoman flew up and out of sight, lost in the darkness.


	4. Chapter 4

“So let me get this straight.” Sara said, clearly hanging on to the last shred of her patience by the edge of a fingernail. “A Bat runs you down, tortures you, hears you know Kara, repents her life of fascism and lets you go with a message to meet her in two days close to the Garden. And we DON’T think this is a trap!”

“I never said it wasn’t a trap.” Lena pointed out calmly. “I’ve just told you what happened. It’s your decision what we do about it.”

“Good, because that makes things very, very simple. We’re not going.” Sara said flatly. “Come on, this is obviously a plan they had ready to go in case the big bad Batman couldn’t make it to you.”

“And if it isn’t?” Lena was still dead calm but there was an intensity in her eyes. “If this Kate Kane is on the level and they don’t realise she’s turned what could she get out with?”

“Lex’s secret brownie recipe and his plan to cure baldness?” Sara snapped. “Who cares? Even if, by some miracle, this isn’t a setup it still puts us within spitting distance of Lex’s main strike force including THE Bat. We got away with it with Kara but only because they weren’t expecting us. No way she makes it out without alerting them and then we’ve got the entire Garden a bike length behind us. We don’t live through that.”

“You’re right.” The new voice was quiet but cut through the room like a scalpel. “It’s too dangerous.” 

Kara walked up to the small table that Sara and Lena had been using as an impromptu centrepiece for their discussion. “That’s why I’m the only one who’s going.”

“Like hell you are!”

“Sara… it’s my sister. Whatever dad did to our memories we’ve been sisters for… for a long time. Years at least. She’s still my family. I’ve got to go.”

“Kara this is…”

“A trap, yeah, I heard you.” Kara drew a shaky breath and looked Sara dead in the eye. “Truth is you’re probably right and I’m terrified. But if there’s even a chance, any chance, that this is real I have to go.” She reached out and put a hand on Sara’s shoulder. “The first night I came here you said the GCG remembers what it’s like to be free. You were right about that. But I think the thing about freedom, the thing that those trapped in the Garden have forgotten, is you’ve got to be willing to fight for it. To risk everything for the people and causes you care about.”

Sara stayed silent for a full minute and Kara had to resist temptation to hold her breath. “Okay.”

“Just like that? Okay?” Kara asked with a small smile.

“Just like that. I get it, I really do. It’s just…” Sara looked around and Kara thought she recognised an echo of the same stress and tension she’d occasionally seen on her father’s face. The pressure of responsibility not just for things but for people. Of holding something huge and important together while faced with impossible choices. 

“I know. And that’s why I’m not asking for help. Let me do this alone. Either I come back with Kate or… well you won’t have lost anyone else on one mistake. Besides you saw what happened with the Red Hood M.C. If they want a fight they’ll get one!”

“Pride is a very dangerous thing Kara. Almost as bad as overconfidence. It’ll get you killed out here.” Sara sighed and nodded. “But yes, if you want to go I won’t stop you. What do you need?”

“A bike would be handy.” Kara said with a smile.

“I’d offer you mine but Clayface ate it.” Alex added from the small group surrounding the table. She saw the surprise on Frost’s face and shrugged. “I can’t ride for a day or two anyway while the stitches heal.”

“Actually I might be able to help with that.” Felicity said reluctantly. “We’ve got something in the workshop… overpowered, far too heavy and if I’m honest it’s a bit of a brute to ride. No-one here’s been able to manage it but I’m starting to think it was waiting for you.”

Kara’s face lit up and her older, alternate-reality self couldn’t help but chuckle. Alongside her Kate snickered and raised a knowing eyebrow at her wife. 

“You mean it?” The younger Kara gasped in delight. 

“Yeah. You’ve even got just about enough time to customise her a little if you’re not too ambitious. We’ll get you fitted in the morning.” Felicity smiled and raised a beer bottle in salute. “Can’t have one of our sisters riding into a murder-trap on any old piece of crap.”

“Thanks. I think.” Kara said, tapping her own bottle against Felicity’s. 

“Anything else you need?” Sara asked as the group took that as a signal to end the meeting and get to the bar. They drifted away leaving the three blondes alone around the table.

“Umm, actually….” Kara was suddenly blushing, something that wasn’t helped by Sara’s slowly growing grin.

“Oohhh, this looks way more interesting than a murder trap. What’s up young blood? Seen a boy you like?”

Kara stammered, shocked at the question. “No! No definitely not. Uh, though, umm…”

Sara’s grin had become downright predatory and she saw the twinkle in Felicity’s eye as both suddenly realised where Kara might be trying to go. Sara stalked slowly into Kara’s personal space, her blazing blue eyes locked on the younger woman.

“Seen a girl you like?” The words were practically a purr and Kara squeaked, actually squeaked at hearing them. She suddenly found herself tongue-tied and could only nod helplessly. 

“So what, exactly, do you need Kara?” The words came from Felicity who’d moved to flank Kara and had a similar smile on her face to Sara’s. 

“Umm… I… uh, I need… I mean I was hoping… umm….” Kara was squirming under their collective gaze and she wasn’t being helped by the clearly suggestive long lingering glances both women were indulging in whenever they were sure she was almost but not quite not looking at them. She took a deep breath and lowered her head, hoping that the moment of privacy - however fake - would be enough.

“I just don’t want to be alone.” Kara whispered, her hands shaking. “Two days… I want to make sure I’m still brave in two days. For Kate’s sake.”

As she was still looking at the floor Kara missed the glance that Sara and Felicity shared. Surprise and an odd pride at such a request. 

“I think we can help there.” Felicity said softly and reached out to take Kara’s hand. “Pleasure is the best distraction there is. And don’t worry, we’ll take things slow, alright?”

“And believe me that’s not the easy option…” Sara commented then gave an indignant cry as Felicity’s spare hand smacked her thigh. “Hey! It’s the truth…”

“We’re not meant to be scaring her dear.” Felicity said mildly.

“What? She’s stupidly beautiful, taking things slow is not the easy… what? What is it?” Sara asked, derailed at the mix of delight and shock on Kara’s face.

“You.. uh, you think I’m….”

“Beautiful? Of course! Why, have you… ohhhhhh.” Sara could have slapped herself as realisation dawned at Kara’s suddenly ashamed glance. “Not much time for love in the Garden, huh?”

“Not really, no.” Kara said quietly.

“Alright, then let’s do this properly.” Sara said, stepping forward and gently taking Kara’s face in her hands. “Kara Kane, you are one of the most beautiful women I’ve seen in my entire life and I’ve wanted to do this since the moment you fell from the sky in front of me.” 

The kiss was one for the ages even by Sara’s standards. Soft and tender but still passionate she made sure to guide Kara through what she suspected was her first time with a delicate touch that left the younger blonde gasping. As their lips parted Felicity gently but firmly pulled Kara down until she was kneeling beside the chair, head still spinning.

“You’re stunning Kara, never forget that.” Felicity said softly and pulled Kara into the second kiss of her life. Where Sara had been careful Felicity went for passion, giving Kara a taste of a whole other side of intimacy while still making sure not to push too far too fast. By the time their lips parted Kara was wondering through the fog that suddenly surrounded her how she’d ever made it so far in life without experiencing this.

“Wow…” Kara swayed happily for a moment looking from one to the other. “So, uh….”

“More?” Sara asked and the speed with which Kara nodded pulled a quiet laugh from Felicity. 

“Alright, but let’s take this slow. Go to the bar and grab three beers for us?”

“But….”

Sara raised a finger. “And when you come back we’ll be in that booth over there watching your every move. Put on a show for us.” She winked and saw Kara get it. For a moment she wondered if the young woman would protest she didn’t know how but once again she was surprised as Kara nodded and a small, evil smile flickered across her lips.

“How much trouble are we in?” Felicity asked casually as she slid into the booth.

“Oh all of it but it’ll be worth it.” Sara said casually. “You’re okay with this?”

“Hey, it’s not like sharing our bed has been a bad thing up to this point. Just so long as you’re still planning on growing old with me then I’m fine. And I’m not going to ask you because I too have seen Kara Kane’s ass and know exactly what you’re thinking.”

“Do you blame me?”

“Not for a moment, she really is spectacular.” 

“And just so you know that whole growing old with you thing? Yeah, totally doing that. But thanks for being so open-minded about this.”

“As I said, pleasure is the best distraction there is and one of the very few good things in our life out here. Why not seek it out?” Felicity said with a smile, leaning across to kiss Sara tenderly.

There was a pause then Sara asked: “Uh, Felicity… are we bad people for doing this? I mean, are we taking advantage of her?”

“I don’t think so.” Felicity replied confidently. “For one thing she clearly wants this as much as we do. For another she probably really does need to keep her mind off what she’s going to do and this is a lot better than drinking the problem away. And let’s be honest here, she could be dead in a couple of days if this is, in fact, a murder trap. So let’s give her the best night of her life.”

“Well put.” Sara said then sank back into the cushion while staring in disbelief as Kara walked back towards them. She’d rolled up her usual white t-shirt to just under her breasts, revealing a flat, smooth stomach that begged to be kissed. Her hips swayed as she walked and there was a challenging look in her eyes that just added to the sledgehammer of sexy that was bashing them both over the head. Also she was carrying three beers, two in her right hand, one in her left, which didn’t hurt the image one bit.

“How’d I do?” Kara asked, passing the two bottles from her right hand to Sara and Felicity. They clinked the glass necks together and Sara spoke for them both,

“Passed with flying colours. Though of course you realise… this means war!”


	5. Chapter 5

The scene started to fade out and Kate gave an outraged, wordless protest. 

“Hey, come on, you can’t leave it there!”

“It’s not relevant to the judgement.” Oliver replied.

“Who cares, it’s hot as hell!” Kate protested. “And I, for one, would like to judge how well an alternate universe Kara does in bed with her versions of two of the sexiest women on the planet.”

“Standing right here.” Kara reminded her wife with a smile.

“Yes, and you’re telling me you *don’t* want to see that? I mean, it must be like really personalised porn for you.”

“I.. Uh… hmm, good point.” Kara shook her head as if to banish the stray thoughts that were suddenly clamouring for her attention. “But we’re here to do a job!”

“Consider this a lunch break?”

“Kate…”

“Alright, alright…” Kate grumbled. “But you owe me for this.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“Right now?” Kate looked her wife up and down as if considering. “Night of a thousand orgasms.”

Kara swallowed, her eyes going wide but she nodded anyway. “Deal.”

“Oh you’re going to regret that.” Kate promised gleefully. “Alright Ollie, come on, multiverse needs saving and the quicker we get it done the quicker I get to hear my beautiful wife beg for me to stop pleasuring her.”

“I, wait, what…” Oliver looked confused, a state that wasn’t helped by Kara standing behind Kate and making frantic ‘no, no don’t ask’ hand gestures. Kate though was still holding a grudge about Oliver’s bad timing over the last few days and didn’t need a second invitation.

“Oh it’s quite simple really.” She purred, taking a step back to slide an arm around Kara’s waist. “Take one beautiful woman, tie her naked to a bed, add a vibrator or two and do absolutely anything from dusk till dawn. Only rule is those vibes never turn off. If she breaks the rope before the sun comes up I win. Though, really, it’s not as if there’s a loser here, right sweetie?”

Kara had gone bright red and mumbled something incoherent. 

“It’s really quite a sight…” Kate mused, turning the metaphorical screw a little tighter. “The most powerful woman in the universe caught up in a world of pleasure and fighting her own instincts to either escape or enjoy it a little too much…”

“Kate…” Kara was almost pleading but almost wasn’t quite enough for her wife when Ollie was clearly squirming while wishing he hadn’t said anything.

“Last time we had to replace the bed.”

“Kate.”

“Well I say replace… sweep up is more accurate.”

“Kate!” Kara’s face was a picture as she struggled with a mix of embarrassment and pride.

“What? I’m just making conversation while the great and powerful Oz here gets on with the transport…”

“Huh? Oh! Right…” Ollie mumbled and the world faded in around them to reveal a tight metal corridor with a mass of data lines running overhead. The low lighting made it easy to miss the moving shadow that was this multiverses’ Kate Kane sliding towards a nondescript door. She pressed a hand to the wall while she was still a couple of metres away and there was a brief crack of electricity as her suit shorted out the security system. A moment later the door rolled back and she slipped inside.

The room beyond was a simple cube with a single computer station in the centre. Around the edges were massed ranks of small storage bricks, each one containing the surveillance recordings for the entire city over a single day. A large digital clock dominated one world and the floor was a mass of metal grates that clanked with every step she took. Kate turned and muscled the door back into place but not before sliding a dull grey gel over the leading edge. Satisfied that the only marker she was there would be the unauthorised entry and that the system would likely show it as a brief electrical short she settled down to work.

Her first target was simple but her hands shook as she keyed for the date that was burnt into her mind. A small and complicated robotic arm whirled down from the ceiling, pulled out a specific storage drawer and plucked a glowing blue data cube out. It glided silently over to the reader on the side of the terminal and carefully slotted it into place. To her surprise Kate found her fingers were steady as she keyed for her apartment and entered the time code.

She watched with dread gnawing at her stomach as Kara entered through the front door, walked through to the kitchen… and went to help their father who was sitting at the counter shaking, his favourite whiskey in front of him. She saw the conversation, saw what it cost him, saw the Bat burst through the window and she saw her father deliberately take two Batarangs to protect Kara as he yelled at her to run. 

She watched Kara’s escape with her mind racing and a red mist rising around her. She saw the point they’d spliced in the fake recordings showing Kara killing their father and realised with cold fury why Bruce had shown her the events in reverse. It hid the edit, helped make the transitions seem more fluid because the backwards footage was inherently unnatural. At the same time she felt a renewed pride for Kara. Her sister hadn’t had the training she’d gotten from Jacob or Bruce or the Lexes yet when she’d needed to she’d made every right move, fought and survived the forces of the Garden.

She saw Kara breach the dome and… and…. And fly, Kate though. There was no other word for it. Gravity gave her up and she flew. At least she did until the rocket hit her. Even there though the camera caught a good enough shot to show she was still intact, showed her moving on the desert floor as the bikers arrived. 

Kara was alive. Oddly that was the one part Kate hadn’t really doubted. As much as she knew they’d invested in her training she was under no illusions that they didn’t give a single damn about Kate Kane. But Kara… her father had said he’d “found her”, altered bother Kara and Kate’s memories to help hide her and… and what else, Kate wondered with shock. How far had Jacob gone to protect her, and when. How far back did it go, why had he done it? Whatever it was had to be the reason Bruce and, presumably, Lex had gone to so much trouble to frame Kara, to put Kate on the hunt for her.

She had to find out and around her was the history of the city. Probably unedited, though she couldn’t guarantee that. There was simply too much footage to change more than the snallest fraction and ultimately Bruce needed an accurate record from time to time to aid in investigations. No, no Kate corrected herself. Not investigations. That gave it legitimacy. Police actions. The brutal oppression of an entire city, hell an entire species!

She keyed for the first in a series of dates she’d worked out over the day that had passed since she’d seen Lena Luthor. Dates that she thought might be the last of her real memories, trying to focus on the different texture as Lena had told her. As the robotic arm moved over, replacing the first cube and grabbing the next, Kate pulled a thin rectangle from a pouch on her utility belt. She slipped it into the data reader port and keyed the system to copy everything on the cube across. Even with the astonishing tech of the Garden it would take ten minutes or so per cube and the stick she had could only carry about fifty days worth anyway. Not that she thought she’d get that long here. There was no way once Bruce realised she was overdue that he wouldn’t track her down so as the data transfer started she busied herself with the next step of her plan…

The world spun and the clock showed almost six hours had passed. Kate was still hard at work, pulling cube after cube as her targets changed. She’d done her best to get what she needed on Kara and was working through every major date she could think of in the history of the Garden. The broken records from before the Earth burned were so few they were contained on a single cube, the entire sum of human knowledge from the world-that-was taking up less space than a single day of surveillance footage from one city. They’d been the first thing she’d taken but there was so much more.

The day the dome was installed and the world shut out. The day Lena had escaped. The day there’d been a still-unexplained spike in power draw throughout the Garden causing the one and only blackout in its history. And a list of what Kate could only describe as suspicious dates. Activities that stood out in history, moments that seemed like there might be more to tell. The unexpected suicide of Ray Palmer. The death of Thomas Morrow just days after the first Gardners had rolled off the production line. Any day where there was a mass problem with the ridealongs. Anything she could think of that might have been out of the ordinary or odd had the citizens not been so thoroughly controlled.

That, at least, had been something she didn’t need to worry about. Her own ridealongs had been protected under the cowl from whatever Lena had done so the first thing she’d done after she’d left the building had been to fly as close as she dared to the explosion and retract her cowl. Almost instantly she’d felt them stutter and fail… but she’d been expecting it, had enough of the truth to protect her and while it had hurt like hell she’d managed to hang on to her sanity enough to stand there for another fifteen minutes, making sure she did as much damage to the cursed things as possible. Of course she had no way to know if they were fully disabled or if some part of them were still signalling to ridealong control. Still, the fact she’d been allowed to stay here undisturbed for so long suggested she had a least a limited privacy even if only within her own head.

She took a deep breath as the last cube was pulled out of storage. This one, she knew, would be the end. It wasn’t supposed to exist here and she sure as hell wasn’t supposed to know about it. To the casual observer it was just another data cube for just another day on which nothing important had happened. But she knew better. It clicked into the reader and she swallowed, knowing what was almost certain to happen the moment she typed the next command. This was it, a true moment of no return for her. She tapped the keys and her finger paused over the enter button.

“Alright Kara… I’m coming.” She whispered and stabbed down. The computer beeped an acknowledgement as a decryption key that was supposed to be known only to Bruce Wayne flashed through the cube and the data flowed into her stick. Batman’s personal files, everything that he needed to ensure he could access in the event of a disaster… all right here, hidden in amongst a sea of data. And she was certain that there were at least a dozen alarm systems hardcoded to scream the alert if anyone did what she’d just done.

In her mind’s eye she could see the screaming alarm on Bruce’s augmented reality display, the head snapping round and his bike slamming on its side as he raced for the records vault. If she was lucky she had five minutes. The system showed the transfer would take four. This was going to be close…

Figuring that the game was certainly up by now anyway she opened the door and sprayed more of the grey gel around the corridor walls and ceiling in both directions before retreating to the doorway. The construction here offered few chances for stealth for someone with Bruce’s build, the metal floors were just too obvious and she was sure he wouldn’t bother anyway. Her only hope was that he wouldn’t know who, exactly, was stealing every last secret he’d collected over the years.

The computer gave a soft chime and she raced over to collect the stick, putting it into the safety of a well-armoured thigh holster built in to the suit. She didn’t want to risk it being in the belt just in case something happened… and with that thought she heard the rapid-fire clank of boots on metal from the corridor. 

She didn’t think, that time was long gone. Instead she pulled a remote from her belt and thumbed the first of three buttons. From the corridor there was a pair of echoing crumps as the explosive gel detonated, sending shards of metal flying and collapsing the corridor. Kate knew it wouldn’t stop him, certainly wouldn’t kill him… but it might slow him down just long enough. 

She hit the second button and the carefully planned pattern she’d painted on the floor blew in a shower of molten sparks. The Batsuit protected her from the worst of it and when the smoke cleared there was a jagged hole leading down into the sub-levels. From the corridor there was the crack of metal being yanked and torn as Bruce ripped a hole through the unexpected obstacle. Kate gave one last glance around the room then tossed the dispersal gun containing the rest of the grey gel onto the desk in front of the computer. She jumped into the hole and fell a good twenty feet to land in the labyrinth of metal and cables that fed the data centre. The moment her feet hit the floor she triggered the last button on the detonator and both the layer she’d put on the edge of the door and the remaining supply of gel blew taking the bulk of the room and its contents with them. 

Burning debris fell down the newly-created shaft but Kate was already moving. The cowl had switched to night mode and she was running as fast as she could towards what every plan she’d been able to find had agreed was the nearest exit point. She made it maybe thirty seconds into the access tunnels before she heard the thud of boots landing on the floor behind her. Her heart screamed with fear but she ignored it, forced herself to be calm. Fear was what he wanted, fear was how he won… she knew that, knew what the symbol on her own suit really meant and refused to bow to it. Instead she used it, let the adrenaline fuel her muscles and moved faster through the maze.


	6. Chapter 6

The next hour was the worst of Kate’s life. Lungs burning, flying on wings of fear and adrenaline she tore through tunnel after tunnel, working her way further into the depths of the Garden. Cables gave way to concrete which turned to stone and water as she found the old sewer systems that, miraculously, were still standing beneath the new city. And with every step, every stolen breath she could hear him behind her. His boots clattering the ground as he charged relentlessly after her, the occasional grunt as he took a jump that little harder than she’d dared, bounced off a wall taking a corner faster than he should and gaining inch by inch, moment by moment.

She turned a corner and found herself in a long tunnel and, at the far end, the hint of natural light. Behind her she could hear his breathing echoing off the walls and she tried to reach down, demand even more from a body that was already exhausted. Somehow she kept moving in her headlong flight but before she’d made it halfway to the light she heard the grapple fire behind her. Without thinking she let her legs collapse under her, diving face first into the six inches of water filling the floor of the tunnel. Overhead there was the snap of the metal cable as it scraped across the back of her suit but somehow it didn’t wrap around her.

She rolled to her back, scrambling up the curved wall so she could at least see him as he raced towards her. He was close, closer than she’d thought and she barely had time to bring her arms up and take some of the impact as he slammed into her. The impact threatened to knock the breath from her lungs but she’d cushioned just enough of the blow. Instead she felt his arms reaching around her in a crushing embrace, his fingers trying to lock behind her back, his armoured cowl pressing into her own.

Again Kate acted without thinking, slamming her head into his as hard as she could and the desperate move staggered them both. His hands slipped and she kicked and writhed her way out of his grasp, tumbling backwards down the wall and back into the water. She saw him take a step back and she lashed out with a savage kick to the side of his knee, buckling the leg and briefly, far too briefly, taking Bruce down to one leg. She almost tried a follow-up but could see him turning, adjusting, moving so damn fast there was no chance of catching him with the same trick twice.

Instead she threw herself backwards, moving another critical step or two closer to the exit. For a moment she thought about reaching for a Batarang but knew it was pointless. Bruce wouldn’t be caught off-guard by any of its tricks and there was nothing in the stone tunnel she could use to her advantage. 

Unseen next to Oliver both Kara and Kate were struggling to contain themselves. They both ached to join the fight but knew they’d only be punching air. All they could do was watch and pray.

“Why?” Bruce asked and his voice was harsh through the electronic amplification built into the cowl. “Why betray your home?”

Kate laughed and moved back a little further. “My father’s dead Bruce. If he wasn’t you’d never have shown me that footage. If he was still alive you’d have used that against me. And I know Kara certainly didn’t do it. So who does that leave?” 

“You’re malfunctioning. Let me help you.”

“Listen to yourself Bruce! When you asked me to help you it was supposed to be about justice. About doing what was right and protecting the people! But you treat those people like… like machines. No free will, just a cog in the Lex-given grand design and if they break then they’re disposable.”

“It’s the only way.”

“NO!” Kate practically screamed the word and it was shockingly loud in the tunnel. “I don’t care what your reason is, nothing can be worth this! Even if you were doing it to save the entire human race what’s the point if we’re no longer human?”

“A pity…” Bruce said and there was a genuine note of regret in his voice. “I’d hoped you’d see reason, help us build the future.”

“Not your future. Not any more.”

“We’ll see. Your father reprogrammed you once. We can do so again.” 

Kate froze, her blood boiling in her veins as she stared in horror and fury at a man she’d thought just a few days ago was the only trustworthy voice left in her world. She should run. She knew that was the smart move. Turn and sprint for the end of the tunnel, jump into the light just as Kara had done. But Kate knew that was what he was waiting for, knew it was still too far and that he’d be able to snag her easily before she could make it to the waiting desert. So she did the only thing she could. She drew a deep breath, gathered her strength and faced the nightmare that made every soul in the Garden cower in fear. She saw the darkness behind him, felt it close around her and embraced it. Let Kara have the light, Kate had always been more at home in the night anyway!

She made to turn and run, saw him shift his weight as he settled into a firing position, right hand already moving down to his belt and another grapple gun. To his surprise she kept the turn going, spun in a complete circle and dove forward, her hands grabbing his wrist and using her own momentum to spring off the side of the tunnel. His arm was suddenly behind his back and yanked upwards with unexpected force. In the confined space the pop as his shoulder dislocated was shockingly loud.

With a growl of pain he reached up and his gauntlet wrapped around her throat, tearing her away and hurling her down the tunnel. He went to snap his arm back into its socket but to his shock three Batarangs slammed into his armour and exploded. The suit bore the brunt but the message was clear, Kate had no intention of giving him any recovery time. Adapting to the unexpected aggressiveness he strode forward and dove towards her, his one good arm coming down with unbelievable force to slam his fist into her gut.

The suit did its best but physics couldn’t be denied and Kate cried out as her ribs rattled from the blow. She pulled her legs up and wrapped herself around his waist, ignoring the left arm to focus on the damaged right, slamming pinpoint blows around the armour sheets to batter the already dislocated shoulder. Again he grabbed her, this time by the upper arm, and once more she felt herself thrown down the tunnel. Her back cracked into the stone but she suddenly realised she could see daylight. Their fight had moved them within a few feet of the exit!

Before she could move he was on her, grunts of pain audible from behind the cowl. His fingers locked around her throat and started to squeeze. She felt the world start to turn black and her hand scrabbled at her belt, opened a pouch and slammed against the wall. The flash-bang burst into noise and light that seemed magnified in the confined space just as she brought both knees up into his stomach, driving the air from his body. The grip around her throat slackened for a moment and she jerked back and away, felt his hand scrabble down her chest as she fought for every last inch she could find. 

His hand reached her waist just as Kate’s head moved over the edge to hang tantalisingly in the open air. She felt the fingers close around the utility belt and start to drag her back. No, no she hadn’t come this far to fail now! She kicked out frantically, trying to find somewhere, anywhere that would get him to falter. Just for a second, that’s all she needed… but it was all muscle and armour, no way in. But maybe, she realised with a start, a way out!

Her hands lashed out and managed to find a grip on the front of his suit. At the same time she brought her knees up to her chest, planting her feet in his stomach. With desperate strength she heaved at his bulk, throwing him over her, hanging on as he slid past her cowl, hand still locked around her belt as they both tumbled out of the Garden and into the devastated ruin of the Freescape.


	7. Chapter 7

They fell together, tumbling through the air as each tried to land on the other. The drop was more than Kate had expected, at least fifty foot straight down but the thin trickle of water that not even the Garden could find any remaining use for had softened the desert below into something approaching mud. They hit side by side, both groaning from the impact as more damage was dealt to weary bodies, the impact jolting them apart. 

Kate knew she was running on empty and rolled away from the Batman, hissing with pain as something in her chest burned every time she tried to breathe. She clawed her way out of the small mud-filled pit on to solid rock and looked back. Her heart sank as she saw Bruce climbing slowly to his feet, mud and water streaming from his suit and giving him the appearance of a damned soul freshly risen from the grave. 

Kate shook her head to clear the ringing in her ears and suddenly realised she could hear something else over the pounding in her veins and the echoing silence of a concussion. The roar of an engine coming closer…

Bruce clearly heard it to as he turned to face the new threat only to have to throw himself full length into the mud as something blue and silver raced through the narrow canyon to the east, hit a small mound of earth and launched itself through the air where his head had been. Kate could only stare in shock as she saw the stylised red and yellow S on the front of it that matched the one on the back of the woman hunched over the machine as it flashed past.

“Kara…” 

From their vantage point above the desert the trio of watchers seemed just as surprised as the wounded Kate below. “Showoff.” Kate muttered to her wife though with a little difficulty as she’d forgotten to breathe ever since the younger version of herself had decided to go toe to toe with the Batman.

“Desperate” Kara corrected quietly, her fists still clenched as she clearly wanted nothing more than to step into that reality and put a stop to the fight. To show this version of herself what she was truly capable of if she let go. But all she could do was stand and watch…

“Come on!” The rider yelled as she planted a foot in the dirt and swung the bike around, charging back towards Kate, her left hand extended in invitation. Kate didn’t need to be told twice and reached out, felt the comforting slap of her armoured hand meeting her sister and the surprising power behind the grip as Kara flipped her up on to the seat behind her. They were together again and going home! They…

A dark shape flew out of the pit and a hand grabbed on to Kara’s jacket. The bike toppled from the unexpected weight and suddenly Kate, Kara and Bruce were flying through the air or tumbling along the ground. The bike itself clattered to a halt against a rock outcrop a hundred yards away, certainly too far to be any good to them in an escape.

Kara scrambled back to her feet ready to fight. She had no idea how, not really, not beyond the basics her father had taught her and she was under no illusions how woefully inadequate those skills would be against the Bat. Her other talents would have to do even if, in truth, she wasn’t entirely sure how they worked either. She raised her hands… and froze.

The Bat was crouched on the ground some twenty feet away, his right arm snaked around Kate’s throat, holding her tight against her with his left hand on top of her skull. He’d triggered the cowl, leaving her head exposed, a trickle of blood from her mouth and what looked like dozens of cuts and scrapes on her face evidence of the brutal battle they’d fought in her escape.

“One step and she dies.” Bruce called and Kara nodded her understanding. Bruce carefully moved his left hand down to his side and pulled something out of his utility belt. He threw it into the dirt just in front of Kara, the metal shape snapping out and unfolding into what looked like a slim version of his own cowl only the white eyes were replaced with a metal slit and from within a sickly green glow shone.

“That muzzle is the only way the two of you continue to breathe.” Bruce said, his hand once again locked in place on the top of Kate’s head. “It will shut down your hostile biology. Put it on, come with me.”

“Don’t!” Kate shouted only to groan in pain as Batman tightened his arm around her throat. 

“Your sister will be locked away in exchange for your cooperation. You will tell us where to find the rest of the… terrorists. And in return I will only execute half of them. Take it or don’t. There is no counter-offer.”

“Kara…” Kate hissed, still fighting despite the arm cutting off her air. “Don’t listen. He’s… he’s not dangerous because of his… his tech or brutality. It’s…. It’s fear Kara. T…t…that’s his weapon. Fight…”

The hushed words carried on the desert air and Kara felt her world shift. Her whole life she’d hidden away, made sure to act exactly as she should to stay safe. She’d yearned for freedom but mostly she’d lived in fear. Now, suddenly, she realised the truth. She’d always been afraid of what could happen and that was something encouraged in the Garden. But there was another kind of fear…. Not the fear of what could happen but the fear of what would. Knowing that no-one’s coming to save you, knowing hope isn’t around the corner. Knowing that despite everything, despite doing the best you could that you were doomed. Knowing in your bones that you’ll fail… and fighting anyway. 

The revelation washed over her and she nodded her understanding to Kate. Her sister who’d followed her to freedom knowing the danger but doing it anyway because the risk was worth it. 

“I love you Kate.” Kara said though she suspected it might be the last thing that she ever got to say to her sister. Because she knew the truth, knew what the Garden wanted to prevent at all costs… Fear wasn’t a furnace, burning hope away. It was a forge that could make her stronger.

Kara focused on the power she knew was waiting for her. Felt the heat rise, felt her eyes start to glow red while wondering how on earth she could focus the energy to somehow miss her sister and fry the monster that held her. 

There was a shadow overhead then a shape slammed into Batman with such force he was torn from Kate in a single smooth motion. He rolled through the dirt, locked in combat with the newcomer. His black suit seemed to make her red and blue leathers stand out all the more, a mane of black hair flying behind her and on her forehead a golden band glistened with a single bright red star flying in its centre. They separated and scrambled back to their feet but Bruce had pulled a sidearm from his suit and had it pointed directly at the newcomer.

“One step more and I fire.”

“Then fire. I don’t stop.” Her voice echoed off the rocky walls as Kara and Kate stared in shock.

“I don’t bluff woman.” Bruce growled, sighting the weapon for a clear kill shot on her head.

“I don’t care man.” The newcomer drew herself to her full height and it was only then that the unseen watchers realised how imposing she was. Over six foot with the build of an olympic athlete she looked like she could lift the mountains themselves if the need arose.

“I am Diana of Themyscira-now-gone. I speak for the dead and the forgotten gods of justice. And in their name, I pass this sentence. Bruce Wayne…” She reached over her shoulder and pulled a short sword from a hidden sheath. “… you stand condemned. And condemned you will fall!”

Diana launched herself to the attack with what seemed impossible speed, the sword slashing to cut the gun in half with no apparent effort. Bruce parried the follow-up blow with an armoured hand, backpedaling away, looking for distance and time to react to the new threat. She found solid ground in the sand and dirt just as his hands snapped up to send four Batarangs flying at her face, razor-sharp edges glinting in the sunlight. The sword danced to match them and eight pieces dropped from the air.

“Another alien!” Bruce spat, his hands dropping to reload his weaponry. 

“I’m no more alien than you.” Diana said taking a careful step forward, knowing better than to let herself grow overconfident against such a foe. “Though perhaps I am somehow more human.” She shouted over her shoulder to the frozen Kate and Kara who were watching in stunned silence.

“Sisters! This is now a place of war. You will either die or you will run.”

The words shook Kate into action and she got painfully to her feet, hurrying as best she could to her sister. “You heard her Kara, time to go!” Kate kept moving, heading to the bike Kara had been riding and praying it hadn’t been damaged. It wasn’t until she tried to lift it that she realised how badly she’d been hurt or, more importantly, that she was alone. She looked back and saw Kara standing exactly where she’d left her, her eyes locked on the fight.

A fight that didn’t look like it was going too well if Kate was any judge. Batman’s gauntlets were crackling with blue energy and he wasn’t just blocking Diana’s sword any more. Wherever he could he was landing blows of his own and whatever was powering his weapons was clearly capable of doing damage to the warrior woman. 

“Kara come on!” Kate yelled and as she did so Bruce brought his closed fists together and sent a crackling blue bolt into Diana’s chest. She flew backwards and crashed through a rock outcrop to land just in front of the stationary blonde. 

“Are you an idiot? I said run!” Diana snapped and Kara felt a terrible, wonderful peace settle over her. This was real. It was all real.

She stepped forward and for the first time in her life felt that she was on the right path. In front of her the metal muzzle Bruce had demanded she wear gleamed against the desert floor.

“No. Didn’t you hear him before? I’m not an idiot.” 

Her heel smashed down on the device with such force it burst apart, shrapnel flying far and wide. 

“I’m an alien…”

Her eyes glowed red as she embraced the power that waited within her. The fear was still there but now it burned for her, helped her… forged her hope anew with every moment she refused to surrender to it.

The blast lit up the canyon and sent Batman tumbling head over heals, the suit he wore arcing with energy as it tried to protect its wearer. His flailing body carved a groove in the soft sand until he smashed into a small dune. 

“All right child. Very well.” Diana said from behind Kara as the glow faded. “Maybe don’t run…”

“You’ll wish you’d run!” Bruce’s voice echoed to them from its sandy resting place as he pulled himself to his feet. The bat symbol on his chest was glowing the same sickly green as the muzzle he’d offered to Kara even as the rest of the suit struggled to repair itself. The cowl was shattered to reveal his left eye, his right hand exposed to the elements. 

“You’ll wish you’d never thought to take our planet at all! You’ll wish I was able to give up. That this suit wouldn’t continue the fight even after I was dead! You’ll wish so many things. But they’ll just be wishes. What’s real… will be ME!”

The threat hung on the wind for a moment then the roar of an engine answered him. From the depths of the canyon a red and gold bike flashed into view, its wide wheels seemingly floating within the forks and on its back Diana and Kara rode to battle. They shot past Batman and curved around in a large loop, Kara groaning as they came close enough for the green light to touch her. Suddenly she felt sick to her stomach, pain shooting through her… but it passed as soon as they were out of its reach and she set herself. 

“Ready?” Diana called, reaching done and unhooking an arrowhead-shaped shield from the side of the bike.

“Ready!” Kara said and to her surprise she found she meant it. They lined up facing Bruce and Diana gunned the engine, building speed. With a grunt she pulled her arm back and hurled the shield as hard as she could up into the air.

“Go.” It was almost a whisper of command but Kara would have heard it from the other side of the planet. She launched herself up from the bike, not thinking about what she was doing, trusting herself to do what was needed. In a heartbeat she was flying and had caught up with the shield as it started to drop to the earth. She grabbed the trailing edge and lined up on her target.

“Take him down.” Kate said from the relative safety of the canyon entrance as she watched entranced.

The point of the shield slammed with unbelievable force into the centre of the glowing green bat on Bruce’s chest. The thundercrack of the impact echoed across the Freescape and when the dust cleared Kara was in a half crouch some distance beyond Bruce’s body, the suit that surrounded him dark and silent. Yet still, somehow, he was on his hands and knees, trying to rise.

“Surrender agent of Luthor.” Diana said as she walked over from the parked bike.

“Never.”

“I respect that…” She said coldly before slamming her boot into the point of his chin knocking him out cold. “… but it was not a request.”

“Holy shit…” Kate muttered from her unseen vantage point beside her wife. “Ollie please tell me that this Diana exists in our universe? You didn’t miss her out when you rebuilt things, right?”

“Down girl.” Kara chuckled before turning to Oliver. “But, seriously, does she?”

“Uh… yes.” Oliver looked a little sheepish. “It’s just that Themyscira is a very well hidden island and the Amazons haven’t decided to reveal themselves to the world just yet.”

“Amazons? Well that explains a lot…” Kate took another look at Diana then noticed Kara’s raised eyebrow. “What? It’s not like you wouldn’t be able to take all of them in a fight.”

Kara blushed and gave an ‘aww shucks’ shrug. Unfortunately for her Kate wasn’t entirely done. “I mean, preferably naked and oiled in a wrestling pit but…”

“Are you going to be like this whenever we visit another universe?” Kara asked trying to hide her embarrassment.

“Hey I’m having to watch life and death situations without being able to do a damn thing to help. And either I’m the one in them or the woman I love is. Consider the occasional fantasy a reasonable way of bleeding off the stress.” Kate said matter-of-factly. “So yes, pretty much.”

Kara shook her head but couldn’t hide the smile as she turned her attention back to the events unfolding before them.

From the canyon a second engine burst into life and the younger Kate carefully manoeuvred her sisters’ bike across the unfamiliar terrain to join the two women. She looked down at Bruce’s crumpled body with disdain. “What do we do with him?”

“Take him with us? He’s got to be useful for something even if only information.” Kara suggested but Diana shook her head.

“Too dangerous. You saw how he fights. He would be just as formidable as a prisoner and if he found his freedom…”

“Besides if it’s information you’re after, well, I didn’t exactly run straight here from that fire Lena Luthor started.” Kate said, patting the hidden holster on her thigh. “I think I’ve probably got something useful for your.. uh… “

“Friends.” Kara said with a smile. “Though the Gotham City Garage is the group name.”

“Well if we’re not taking him leave him here.” Kate advised. “They’ll come for him soon enough and we need to be long gone by the time that happens.”

“I’ll protect you on the journey.” Diana said, firing her own bike into life.

“And afterwards?” Kate asked, spotting the words left unsaid.

“I ride alone.” Diana said quietly and there was an odd sense of loss underpinning the words. Kara went to say something but Diana cut her off.

“Later young one. Your sister is right, we need to leave. But on the ride think of this…”

Kara swung herself in front of Kate, her hands resting easily on the controls as if she’d been born to them. She pulled up alongside Diana, ready to lead the way but waited to hear what the warrior had to say.

“Once, long ago, I knew someone who came from a world where a thousand lies lived in every word. But she told me that one thing, and only one, that she was told held true. A Fury, like a fire, dies alone…” Diana smiled and in her face there was a challenge and call to arms that Kara found herself helpless to refuse.

“… but on Furies ride the storm.”

**Author's Note:**

> Well this ended up longer than expected! Took about three novel's worth of writing but finally figured out how to give you a Kate / Bruce fight, hope it delivered! And yes, there's a part of me that really wanted to have Earth-Prime Kara just get so frustrated she pops into existence and yeet's Bruce over the horizon, ah if only we had outtakes in written media...
> 
> Once again full credit goes to the Gotham City Garage comic series as chunks of this (especially the final fight scene) draw very heavily from that material and if you enjoy that part of this story please consider checking it out.


End file.
